441–450 of 531 posts
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Is WFH layoff-proof somehow?
Why would you ask that? I didn't imply that. No guarantees with WFH either. Inserted edit: I notice you didn't comment on bullying. That's awkward over a zoom. At least one boss of someone I know has found out the hard way. Especially on playback. The mind set changes when you start self organising because you're alone in a room. It's a different dynamic. The gig economy has a lot of twists and turns. Less old guaran…
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I experienced all of these to a much better degree during college. Are you sure you don't just want to live in a city that provides plenty of shared spaces? Relying on your employer for these items seems unwise.
> Relying on your employer for these items seems unwise. Why? Work is where you spend one third (or more) of your time during your adult life. Why the hell would I not want such a significant portion of my life to not also provide great benefits like opportunities to make friends, meet people, eat great food, and have fun? If you scoff at people who want to make their workplaces more welcoming and happier, no shit th…
They may provide some of those either explicitly as an incentive, or as a side-effect of putting a bunch of people in close proximity, and that's great. But when profits are looking iffy, I don't think you can rely on it. It makes more sense to be less dependent on your job, which might go away, and to build those social experiences outside of work so you still have them to fall back on if you change jobs.
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Of course, a lot of people taking their big tech paychecks to some lower-cost place will just be exporting the problem to another place. A sudden big inflow of cash into a low-cost area is going to raise prices.
You're assuming that every city refuses to build housing. That is true in California but not in the US as a whole.
Who's going to let housing be built if it devalues the houses they own?
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It's hard to have a hallway conversation when you're constantly being watched to make you keep your bottom in your seat.
To add two points to that. First, people here always point out about the boss looking over the peons in their open space office. That may be true for a lot of situations, but what is also depressing is that even if there is no boss/manager/whatever overlooking the employees, those will watch each other. Second, I can second the hallway conversations, those never happened at the places I've worked. If anything, it was…
Having said that, I used to work for a big international bank and apart from a few people in my direct team, most if the other people I worked with were in other countries, let alone other offices. They had outstanding collaboration and communications software and infrastructure though. By far the best of any company I’d worked for. They were very well set up for remote collaboration and I learned lessons there I’ve found very useful in the last year. You work with what you have.
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Not everyone you meet at work needs to be your "Best friend forever and always." I just like talking to people. I like being able to go down the hall and solving a problem in 5 minutes that would take 3 days and 3 meetings WFH. I am "friendly" with many people in the office. I socialize with them. They aren't dear dear friends but they are acquaintances that have helped me out of tight spots and I helped them. I can'…
They sound like colleagues. As distinct from other employees or friends. Some of my best times were working in a university department. We did all this, though the talking to people outside your team was at proscribed coffee times in the staff lounge and sometimes over lunch. But they remained colleagues not friends. Outside the few parties a year we didn't go round people's houses. We collaborated and fought over wo…
My point is, there isn't a right or wrong here. It's frustrating see the WFH warrior brigade come out and diminish other's experiences just because they had a bad experience. It's simply not universal.
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Introspection is very hard for anyone running the world. That's why revolutions happen and there isn't a single dynasty stretching back to ancient times.
Pretty sure if revolution breaks out in the western world... it won't be started by overcompensated engineers upset that they have to go back to attending an office with free snacks/food and on-site massages.
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I'm not a new grad though, I have many years of experience, and a history of being worth paying. I'm not allowed to see real numbers, but I'm told that real pay is around that range by those who do in my company. Note that in India people work longer hours, so per hour you are getting down to less than 50% of my wages.
> Note that in India people work longer hours Grasping at straws here. > I have many years of experience, and a history of being worth paying Seems like your ego can't handle it. Why do you think that there aren't similar people elsewhere in the world? You can't keep throwing random numbers without sources to back them up. The reality is that your job can be done by many others living in a country with lower COL with…
Then why isn't it being done by them already? Do you think companies hate saving money and just prefer to throw it away on more expensive employees who aren't any better?
Someone has an inflated self worth and ego issues but it's not the guy you're responding to.
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> the flickering fluorescent lights, the noise of coworkers, the smell of burnt coffee or popcorn, the boss that drops by to see how you're doing and causes you to lose a hour of concentration so I might as browse the web until quitting time. Was this at a "tech" company of any kind, or a non-tech company with a small number of software engineers? This sounds more like an archetype based on Office Space rather than a…
These were all software companies in or near Silicon Valley. Cube farms, not open office. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones to get your own office (with a door)
It's surprising how bad smelling the coffee from a Starbucks iCup machine is though.
Obviously depends on the sector. I have a number of friends at JP Morgan and other banks/funds, none are considering leaving over no, or less, remote work.
In my experience at least talking to some younger people there is a clear dichotomy: despite all the talk about Gen Z being "digital natives", people new in their career are much hungrier to get back into the office because they don't yet have good career networks built up and they're eager for mentorship. It is older, or at least more established workers who are less keen on that. I don't think FAANGs will have any…
My purely anecdotal experience is kind of the opposite. My friends and co-workers who are eager to get back to the office are mostly the ones who have kids and want to get away from them during the day (which I am sympathetic to).
But this can be solved with just renting a separate flat and using it as an office; something I actually considered, except small flats are the new fad for real estate investors (at least where I live), so prices are ridiculous.
Going back to the office, the company building, removes a lot of the flexibility and freedom that are important to me, and bring in heaps of crap that I don't want to deal with.